1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk changer having a roulette which receives a plurality of disks of the same size and can be rotated and, more particularly, to a disk changer improved to exchange disks received on the roulette when a disk is recorded and/or reproduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there are various kinds of disk changers: one which extracts a disk selected from a magazine for receiving a plurality of disks on the same axis, and then records/reproduces the disk; and another which records/reproduces the disk selected from a roulette for receiving a plurality of disks on the same plane by the rotation of the roulette. In the latter case, when changing from one disk to another during reproducing (or recording) a disk selected from the disks on the roulette, the reproducing procedure has to be interrupted. Thereafter, the roulette is revolved to the selected disk, and then the reproducing is performed.
Also, there is another disk changer for receiving two kinds of disks having different sizes (e.g., a laser disk and a compact disk), which also selects a disk and then reproduces the selected disk. The disk changer has a tray for receiving the larger disk and a roulette for receiving a plurality of smaller disks. However, it is impossible to draw out the disk while it is being reproduced. Therefore, after a disk received on the roulette or tray is completely reproduced, the roulette or tray has to be drawn out to exchange the disks.
The above disk changer requires time for exchanging the disks whereby the recording or reproducing procedures cannot be performed continuously. That is, to exchange a disk received on the roulette after being completely reproduced, the reproducing procedure has to stop. Thereafter, the roulette is drawn out to exchange the disks. A rather long time is required from the point of exchanging the disks to the point of reproducing the disk, such that recorded information cannot be continuously accessed.